funding and hip-hop

Guess what? The prospect of getting my research funded by an outside organization scares me.

Its not the application process or prospect of rejection that has me fearful. It is the fear of an outside organization owning my work. Its the fear of my creation falling into somebody else's hands.

And I think I know why this is: because I am a hip-hop fanatic. I have been listening to hip-hop music since I can remember, and I have more knowledge about the subject than probably anything else.

Anyway, back in the early days of "commercial" hip-hop, record companies would sign artists to ridiculous contracts that left them without ownership of their art. Remember, we are talking about mostly poor African-Americans from NYC, so they didn't really have the leverage to pass up on a deal. The record companies simply took advantage of them (which is why nobody is crying these days as the same record companies are losing hold of the industry).

I've grown up with the notion that somebody who wants to fund your art will end up hurting you. If this happened—if I were to create something that could possibly make a city more bike friendly, and it was suddenly "owned" by my funders and never used—I would be devastated.

The worst part of this fear is that it may be unnecessary. I still don't have enough info about the process, or any funding organization, to say with certainty, but the Sara(h)s gave no indication that this was the case. They even mentioned that presenting the outcomes of the research wasn't always mandatory.

Is this fear misguided?

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Random memory I had while writing this: When I was in seventh grade, I stole one of my older brother's mix-tapes (that's funny to read now) to play in my walkman (also funny) while I mowed the lawn. On it was A Tribe Called Quest. I immediately fell in love with them, and thinking back, that moment changed my life forever. I'm talking serious chaos theory here. I doubt I would be here today, writing this post, if it weren't for that moment.

Feel free to check out any of their songs & videos on the web. This is a good start.